the goal of yoga is two fold. the first is making our body beautiful and the second is realizing our spirit that is eternally beautiful. we have always been saying sound mind in a sound body. this is 100% true. only the sound body has the sound mind. the sound mind lives in a sound body. and only the sound mind is capable of recognizing the beautiful eternal soul inside. but we need to prepare our body for that goal. we need to begin with the body and there is no other way. the body is the door. buddha has always been saying that our body is a door to our buddha-hood. buddha simply means one who has recognized and realized the soul inside the body. buddha himself suffered and tortured his body. his body has almost become a skeleton. this was because of the wrong ascetic practices prevailing of torturing the body. and also because of the ignorant masters who teach and consider only the contortions of the body as yoga. this is a great ignorance. posture is only a beginning and composure is the goal. body is the beginning and spirit is the goal. this is the ultimate goal of yoga. monkeys do better postures than the human beings. does that mean the monkeys are yogis? buddha realized the mistake after a very long time when almost his whole body was spoiled. he then realized the importance of the body. let us understand this mistake from the very beginning before moving on the path of yoga. let the methods of preparing the body be proper. let there be no myth and misunderstanding in this. let there be harmony while doing the postures. the first and primary purpose of yoga is to prepare the body. to make the body strong and agile. and prepare the body and mind capable of peeping inside the body to have glimpse of the eternal spirit. yoga is the holistic system of 8 steps to that ultimate goal. the whole objective of yoga spirit is to help individuals on the path of yoga to realize that ultimate goal.